Sue James, vice provost for Faculty Affairs and professor, has been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, or AIMBE, College of Fellows.

James was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the AIMBE College of Fellows for her pioneering work on hyaluronan-enhanced polymers and efforts to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in academia.

She will be inducted to the 2022 Class of Fellows along with 152 colleagues at a formal ceremony during AIMBE’s 2022 annual event on March 25.

James is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Advanced Materials Discovery, and the School of Biomedical Engineering, which she co-founded. She has leading expertise in the field of biopolymer materials, many of which are in clinical use as knee implants in more than 1,000 patients.

Much of her work is on hyaluronan-enhanced plastics, which do not cause blood clotting and platelet activation as do most synthetic plastics. She is developing hyaluronan-enhanced flexible leaflets for heart valve prostheses, as well as new materials for vascular grafts. James holds 22 patents for various biomedical technologies, and is co-founder and chief operating officer of YoungHeartValve, LLC, a startup company developing heart valve technologies.

As vice provost for Faculty Affairs, James works with faculty, deans, other vice provosts, and vice presidents to ensure a well-supported faculty and exemplary teaching and learning practices.

Committed to giving back to her community, James has been involved with many service organizations over the years, both internal and external to the university, including the Faculty Council, the CSU President’s Commission on Women and Gender Equity, and the Society of Women Engineers. In 2020, James was elected to the National Academy of Inventors, and has since helped to establish a student branch at CSU.